Sunday, January 5, 2014

{Fountainhead.}

fountainhead: noun

1. an original source of something

synonyms: cradle, source, origin, root

This window is an origin for me. I looked out this window when it rained, the few times it snowed, when it stormed, when it was sunny. I slept beneath or beside this window for 11 years, from the time I moved to South Carolina from Chicago until I went away for college. I woke up from wind and rain hitting this window. I looked out into the backyard from this window. We lived on 6 acres of land, so you could imagine the different beauties I saw out there with each season. This was an old farmhouse on old farmland that still had the original blacksmith shop, carriage and cow barns, and chicken coupe. We had no neighbors, we lived amidst corn fields, cotton, and woods. The original part of the house was built circa 1840. The room I lived in, which I shared with my sister, was approximately 120 years old. This window was probably last painted in the 50's before lead paint was 'bad for you.' Inside this window, as I said, was my room. I had dreams here, played with cousins here, had friends over here, cried here, got angry here, laughed with my sister here, experienced true pain here, grew up here. This is my root. This was my cradle. This is my fountainhead.

This is my husband. My husband is my home, my new cradle. Where he is, is where I belong. And this is our 'backyard.' I didn't grow up in Columbia, but I did grow up in South Carolina. This is a different part of the state than I grew up in, with a different atmosphere and a different caliber of people. The farmland looks the same. I grew up on farmland. I'm glad that I grew up where I did; many members of my extended family can't appreciate it, but I do. I love it. It's where my roots are. This is the backland of our school, CIU. CIU owns 7 miles of hiking trails, that's easily over a hundred acres of land. We are up on a hill. CIU is an original source for my calling from God. It was here that He told me who I was to be. It is here that He gave me my husband. CIU is a source from which God's water flows into the world, like a fountainhead. CIU is my fountainhead. Frank is my fountainhead.

Home.

School.

Husband.

Fountainhead.

From the fountain head springs forth the fountain of water that flows down and smooths stones and shapes boulders. From the fountainhead comes the original purpose of existing. From my fountainhead, in whatever way they appear to me, comes who I am; my likes and dislikes, my attitude and perception, who I am entirely. From my fountainhead, I now live.